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…..'A sense of humour lends you poise, it gives you balance and it helps you to bend without breaking'…..

(HH Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda)

Menolloping; a case of trundling along

Cooeeee.... On Monday the sun shone. Long and strong. Woo hoo.... the YAMster got herself together and headed up to the High Street (Royal Mile) to book tickets for shows and, ostensibly, to put the Fudge into full function... Only two shots got taken and those, not exciting. It was heaving. It always is - nothing new - but one is a few years older than the last visit during festival time and nowadays, for such lengthy outings, a walking stick is imperative. Crowds and walking sticks, let me tell you, do not work synchronously. Twice I had the thing kicked out sideways and me nearly following it. It would almost have been better not to have carried the darned thing and sought out resting places along the way.... [what am I saying. Resting places???!!! HAH] Anyhoo. long story short, after getting the required tickets, I quickly realised that I just didn't want to linger among the hordes and decided I would love to have a full, luscious milk shake, sitting watching them instead.

Something, it transpires, rather elusive. Lots of hot drinks. Lots of fizzy frothy stuff in cans. No milkshakes.

At first the search was centred upon the High Street and South Bridge connection. This took me down via Surgeon's Hall (about where the 'n' is of Nat Mus of Scot)... I was still determined that I would find what I wanted and it was a joy to be in SUN shine; so I kept walking.

...Well; if you call one and half legs** and a walking stick keeping me upright, 'walking'.

Before I knew it I had come to the junction which would lead down towards the Meadows (Melville Dr). Having given up on the idea that there was any such thing as a milkshake to be had in Edinburgh, the idea now was to connect with the No. 42 home again.

That didn't work coz at the stop the timetable revealed I had a 20 minute wait and I am no good standing on these pins - particularly after a trundle on pavement for over a mile. I hirpled on, past Grange Loan and down the big hill to Mayfield (past the canal), and on and on and on, thinking I would find the next bus stop before the bus itself.

Of course not. By the time I got to the point where you see a little (bigger) kink in the orange route (to the right of 'Blackford'), I was at the last hill up before the turn down to the father's house. So kept walking, as one would...

Two and a half miles and one and three quarter hours later, I arrived in a slightly wilted, yet somewhat triumphant and, in no small way, disbelieving condition at base camp. The father looked worriedly at me. The face was well-flushed and there was a bit of gasping and shaking going on. Nothing a cold flannel, half a gallon of water and a choc-ice couldn't put right though. A hot shower before bed also helped and was surprised to find next morning, that I was none the worse for the trek!

Gone are the days of doing the City to home stretch in 40 minutes and with a marching rhythm. On reflection though, I thoroughly enjoyed the expedition, albeit that the Fudge was redundant.

Did I mention, the SUN was shining..?

**disclaimer; it's a euphemism... there are in fact two legs on the YAMster, but one of them, at least, seeks to escape its duty. The other, naturally, attempts to take up the slack. This results in a gait resembling that of a Wild Haggis or, even more accurately, a grotesquely misshapen Wild Yam.......

8 comments:

That was an awesome walk - way back when on my 30th birthday I made a plendge to walk down every street in the town where I lived - it took me a year and half but I did it....I was often out walking 3-4 hours a day and just loved it - these days my old knees won't even handle a lap around the block :(

You got to enjoy the sun so it was pawfect for walking if only the other people would have paid attention to what they were doing. Now, about that milkshake . . . just wondering if the milkshakes you have are eaten with a spoon or thin enough to use a straw? Also, do the flavors typically have things added to them like nuts or candybar pieces?

Hari Om Doods... In Oz, all possibilities are there... my own personal favourite is of the more milky, straw-drinkable variety. I would even have settled for ANY variety that day, and even went into a place purporting to provide Indian 'dhaba' looking for a namak lassi (salted buttermilk) and they said they didn't do them - only bottled mango lassi. disgusting! Not even an iced chocolate anywhere. Sigh... back at home I had some fresh raspberries picked from the hedge at Uncle A's so made my own shake, with yoghurt and organic milk... yummmooooooo!!! Yxx